Scotland's largest financial mutual is on the brink of acquiring the UK's oldest active registered company.
Glasgow-based Scottish Friendly said it is in the final stages of buying life assurer Marine & General Mutual, which will double its assets to £2 billion.
Worthing-based Marine & General was founded in 1852 and holds the Companies House registration number 00000006. It said the firms with the earlier registration one to five no longer exist.
Scottish Friendly said the move is the largest deal in the firm's history and fits in with its strategy of growth through acquisition or by providing back office services for other financial groups.
It said the deal, for an undisclosed sum, is due to complete in the second quarter of this year. Marine & General is closed to new business. Scottish Friendly provides mutual life assurance and a range of other investment products.
Marine & General, which is focused on the retirement market, has 60,000 policyholders and assets of £1 billion.
Marine & General was founded as the UK Temperance & General Provident Association at a time when seamen were charged more for life assurance if they were teetotal, because insurance companies considered water to be dangerous and unsanitary.
But the group championed longevity due to abstaining from alcohol on sea voyages, resulting in a reduction in premiums for sailors.
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